‘Tween Week Cleanse

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day has always been one of my favorites. It’s a week ‘tween the festivities and the start of the new normal of a new year. A week between rich food and cleaner eating. A week between this year’s accomplishments and failures and next year’s set of fresh goals. A week between disappointments of the past year and hope tied around the gift of a new year. A week to plan and organize for the coming year. I was born a planner. I plan, organize, and make lists all year, but nothing compares with the cleansing sense of organization of ‘tween week.

In the early part of my career, when I didn’t have enough vacation time to take the week off, I got organized at work. I enjoyed working in a quieter office, tying up loose ends of the year, and getting a head start on the the coming year.

As my family grew, this week became a week to get organized at home. Christmas decorations were packed away. The kids’ toys and clothes were purged and given away to make room for new gifts. My husband and I reflected on what we wanted for our marriage, our family, and our home in the coming year. It was a good week to clean the garage or the hall closet. I returned to work with renewed energy and that wonderful sense of my world being in order.

When our nest emptied, ‘tween week morphed into a staycation. I began to leave the decorations up till the first week of January to savor them a little longer. We did a few things on the home to-do list, but also spent time relaxing. We reviewed our monthly budget with an annual lens and created new annual financial goals. We finalized plans for the next year’s vacations. We started a tradition of friends gathering in our home on New Year’s Day to share a potluck meal. I returned to work less organized but more relaxed than when I was younger. I recommitted to self-care goals for spiritual disciplines, sleep, exercise, and nutrition.

This week, still feeling fairly new in my retirement chapter, ‘tween week was a blend of normal routine with a little ‘fresh start’ anticipation. I’m less goal oriented now. My daily disciplines are well engrained. I’m more flexible. I set goals because I want them, not out of obligation or guilt. Because I have more time to be organized, I didn’t plan a big ‘tween week cleanse. But I did walk into the pantry one day this week and hit a messiness threshold I couldn’t cross. So I stopped and had a spontaneous pantry organization fest. Euphoria followed.

My prayer this week is that the Lord would walk into my heart the way I walked into my cluttered pantry. David, the man after God’s own heart, had this request of the Lord.

Or in modern day language: God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Psalm 51:10 [MSG]

Like David, I pray that the Lord would clean up my heart. Give me a good scrub. Brush away any crumbs of unforgiveness or bitterness. Straighten out the crooked ways and organize my priorities. Restock my supply of joy. Make me new again. No better way to prepare for next year. No better way to start every day of this year.

Mind the Memories

Every year during the Christmas season, I have a good cry.  I love Christmas! It’s my favorite holiday! A joyful time of giving and celebrating! So why does that big ugly cry creep up on me with no warning?

It’s a happy sad cry triggered by some memory of a Christmas past. When I wasn’t the oldest generation. When Mom was still the creator of all things Christmasy.

There are the early memories of her homemade Christmas gifts. Once she made a bed for my new doll out of a shoebox. Another Christmas she sewed a red coat for my old gold teddy bear so it came back to life as Winnie the Pooh. Later for my children, she appliqued aprons and made teddy bears made out of family heirloom quilts.

There are memories of her Christmas decorations. A white flocked tree with light pink balls that we had when I was four or five. The slender fir with elegant gold and sparkling crystal ornaments I returned home to in my thirties.  Every room had a touch of Christmas inspired by Southern Living magazine. On our mantel still hangs four special stockings that she gussied up.

And there are the food memories.  She started baking weeks ahead, putting goodies away in the freezer.  We always arrived to a spread of fudge, cookies, candies and pies on the buffet atop an old treadle sewing machine base.

So now every Christmas I’m careful to “mind the memories,” paying close attention to them. Holding them close, even when they hurt. They connect the past with our present. They even connect the past with the future when we share the memories and traditions with the next generations.

But there are no Christmas memories greater than the ones Mary had after the shepherds visited her new little baby. Luke 2:18-19 [ESV] – And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Mary, how I treasure and ponder with you!  What a wonder! God Himself wiggled through the humanness of an embryo in a teenager’s womb. He experienced the full spectrum of being 100% human while being completely God. Not so He could show us how to be a perfect man. But rather to become the last lamb sacrificed to remove the sins of humanity.

Hebrews 7:26-27 [ESV] For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.  He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

My sins. Your sins. Once and for all. Wow! That’s a Christmas memory to mind! I’m paying close attention. Treasuring and pondering. Having a good cry.